June 13th, 2008 - A Day with a Dolphin

We arrive in Nassau today and we have an encounter with dolphins scheduled at, well, Dolphin Encounters. We'd tried to book an excursion for just the girls, with Clara and me riding along as observers, but they required an adult to go along in the water and they didn't have three slots left. Yesterday, when we first got in the room, the excursion desk called and told Clara there were some slots available. So, we're on. But first -

Breakfast! We haven't quite docked at Nassau so we get to eat outside while we're still at see. This time I don't need written notes to tell you what I had:



Here's the Nassau harbor master's boat I told you about yesterday. You can't tell but it's not quite as nice as the Port Canaveral harbor master. Still, it's just as thrilling to watch 'em embark and disembark from the moving boat onto the moving ship. Too bad I didn't take a picture of that; that'd've been awesome!



Land ho! Our approach to Nassau.



Off we go, then. We gathered at the appointed spot on ship and then trekked out together as a group, down the gangplank, and lined up outside the ship.

A quick shot of Rachel and Emily while we're waiting to be picked up by the excursion crew:



Refugees? Hardly. Just more cruise folk heading out for their own excursions:



After a short ride out to the island, we're ready for our dolphin encounter. My, ain't we brave souls?



Say hello to our little friend:



A first for all of us: a dolphin sticks her tongue out at us:



Rachel's already mastered the intricacies of dolphin control.



We have more pictures and then we have the pictures taken by the staff that I can't post here since my scanner doesn't work. But it was an interesting encounter, something new for all of us. Emily was so thrilled she decided she'd like a pet dolphin next. She hasn't quite worked out the details of keeping one in Oklahoma but if anyone can figure out how, she can.

Coming back to the ship. It's about a 45 minute ride out to the island and back and I enjoyed getting a chance to just sit back and enjoy the family time and watch the boats and houses and the comings and goings of the people of the Bahamas. The dolphin encounter is just gravy.



Welcome Home, indeed! After a day with the dolphins, it's good to get back to the ship.



Tonight's dinner was in Triton's:



The service was fine but that didn't mean some of us weren't worried about getting fed. Ahem:



I should've written it down! Surely I didn't order, and surely they didn't serve, (Stop calling me Shirley!) plain ol' tomato soup. Whatever it was, it was delicious and I was a few bites into it before remembered to take a picture:



After dinner, it's back to the room to change back into our casual clothes. Tonight's towel sculpture: A monkey. With sunglasses.



Emily saw that The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was playing at the theatre near midnight. We'd seen it a couple of weeks before but it's Emily's favorite movie so, well, why not see it again. We got to the theatre a little early:



Oh, don't worry, it got good and crowded by show time. We only made about 45 minutes of it before all of us kept dozing off. Well, it's showing a little earlier tomorrow night. We'll give it a try then. Off to bed for us but Rachel was still with the youth until the usual 2:00 in the ayem.